Photo by Juan Luis Garcia
Yesterday, Rage Against the Machine shocked the music world with the release of his new solo single, “Digging For Windows”. As representative for de la Rocha later confirmed to Consequence of Sound that the track, produced by Run the Jewels’ El-P, is taken from a full-length studio album due out in 2017.
de la Rocha first began work on his debut solo album following his initial departure from Rage Against the Machine in 2000. Over the following few years, he recorded upwards of 20 tracks with Trent Reznor, DJ Shadow, El-P, Questlove, and others. Questlove described the material as “dangerous” and “scary” with “crazy-fast beats per minute, a theremin, crazy synthesizer energy, Moogs, [and] a lot of drum’n’bass shit.”
However, many of those tracks were scrapped, because de la Rocha felt they sounded too much like Rage. “I felt that I was going through the motions,” he explained in a 2008 interview with the Los Angeles Times. “Not that what was produced wasn’t great, but I feel now that I’ve maybe reinvented the base sounds that emanate from the songs.” In recent interviews, both Shadow and El-P insinuated that the project had been scrapped all together.
According to a series of tweets from El-P, sessions for the forthcoming LP took place back in January of this year. The album will contain only “new material made this year.”
Listen to “Digging For Windows” below. It’s also available for free download via BitTorrent.